The Utopians
by Scrapings of the Times
Summary: What happens to the youth of Gravity Falls when all the adults suddenly vanish? See as Dipper and the new citizens try to adjust to this strange new world while maintaining a sense of normalcy and stability. Cover art is "Civilian" by Wye Oak.
1. Chapter 1

**Well, welcome to my first attempt at an FF, ****_The Utopians_****. I took influence for this story from two things. ****_HBO_****'s amazing series (and ****_Tom Perotta_****'s amazing novel) ****_The Leftovers_**** and partially my reaction towards fellow writer Jameer14's recently finished series ****_Lord of the Falls _****( s/9977863/1/Lord-of-the-Falls). I generally liked ****_LotF_****, but I had a few issues with it. 1. Everyone seems to take their parents or guardian's vanishing surprisingly well with no repercussions. 2. The final third of the story got a little too, shall we say inconsistent with tone, going from an examination of a makeshift society to an overly goofy series featuring parts that were groan-inducing at times. 3. The dialogue felt forced and unrealistic at times. I want to try and provide a more realistic version of what would happen if every adult in Gravity Falls suddenly disappeared and everyone got powers. It's basically my attempt at mixing Action with some Angst and the odd bit of Philosophy. Enjoy!**

Silence.

Silence marked the occasion in which all the adults from Gravity Falls collectively vanished from the world. The town for a few surreal minutes stopped in confusion as adults simply ceased to be. Scared children, confused teenagers and oblivious infants gazed around in confusion, looking for a reason as to why this happened. Two twin siblings known as Dipper and Mabel Pines working and living in their Great Uncle, or "Grunkle" Stan's tourist trap, the Mystery Shack for the summer at the behest of their parents were one of the first individuals to notice that their crotchety uncle had suddenly stopped talking. Curiously, Dipper asked a question that would receive no serious response.

"Grunkle Stan?" He said to nothingness. "Grunkle Stan, where are you?"

"I'm right here you doofus-face" His twin sister Mabel said in a comically gruff voice while wearing a black sweater that had a multi-colored flying monster truck on it. "What are you doing standing here and not making money kid?"

"Mabel, I'm serious, do you know where Grunkle Stan is?"

"Nope!" Mabel replied chipper as always.

"And…Where's Soos? I think we should check if Wendy's okay."

And so the twins walked to the gift shop area only to find the redhead unaffected and contentedly reclining against her chair, boots on the counter repetitively blowing the same chewed-up three sticks of Bubble YA! into a bubble, then starting again. Dipper was glad Wendy didn't vanish.

"Hey dorks, what's up?" she said affectionately.

"Did you just hear Stan and Soos talk, then just stop?" the male twin asked.

"Nah, It's not my problem. They're probably outside." Wendy replied, believing that to be the answer.

"No, they were inside, then they just…stopped." Dipper replied.

"Even for this town, that's just weird." Wendy said, the realization of every adult disappearing slowly dawning on her. "If Stan and Soos are gone, does… that" At this point Wendy stopped and feared that if the two adults in the Shack vanished, her dad, Manly Dan vanished as well.

"We have to go to my house." Wendy simply said as the trio piled into the golf cart and went through the forests of Gravity Falls eventually pulling up to her cabin. Wendy hurriedly ran up to her father's room, only to find that The TV in his room was going on, there were dirty clothes strewn on the floor, and nothing was taken.

Manly Dan was gone.

"I think I need to…go…" It was at this point that Wendy ran outside and back into the cart. Dipper and Mabel went outside and followed her. She was at the passenger side of the cart, her head looking down at the floor. Dipper went to her side, while Mabel stood in the doorway.

"Wendy?" Dipper said worriedly. She didn't respond and still looked down. "Are you okay?"

"What do you think!" she replied, tears present in her eyes, voice choked with sadness. "What would happen if your parents just up and vanished?! You're having a normal day and then they just disappear! Dad was all I had left, Dipper. My mom's dead, my dad's gone and my brothers are in fucking Washington! I don't have anyone." She said as she collapsed her head into Dipper's shoulder, tears soaking into his blue vest.

"It's gonna be okay." He said reassuringly, tears welling up in his own eyes. He truly didn't know whether this affected everyone in the world, or it was just a local event. Nevertheless, he too let the idea of his family disappearing in an instant remain in his mind as the duo stood there head-to-shoulders without moving. Despite his best efforts and his various attempts throughout the summer to not cry, he eventually gave in and let his tears get into Wendy's flannel shirt. After a few minutes, they pulled away to gaze in each other's red, wet eyes as Mabel came over to them.

"You can live with us until everyone comes back" Mabel said reassuringly.

"Thanks." She said with a slight choke. "I just can't go back to that house."

The trio then piled into the cart, Dipper putting the keys into the ignition as the engine sprung to life. As they were pulling out of the driveway, Dipper realized something.

"If you're gonna live with us, we have to get stuff for you and for the three of us. Come on, let's go."

And with that, they drove into town as Wendy's cabin grew smaller and smaller until it became too far for the eye to see.


	2. Chapter 2

**Hey gang, here's Chapter 2 of ****_The Utopians_****. While I was writing this, I was thinking of changing the rating of this to an M. Not because I plan this to be ridiculously violent, sexual or riddled with shock value and typos, but mostly due to swearing and some themes here and there. Let me know whether this is an M story or not. So, in order to stop padding this part out, here's chapter 2:**

While the cart was driving down the road leading into town, Dipper thought back to when Wendy yelled at him. She said something about her brothers being away in Washington and moved on. He was compelled to ask her why they were there to begin with.

"Wendy?" "What's up?" she replied neutrally, voice back to normal.

"I just have to ask. Why are your brothers in Washington?"

She hesitated for a moment before answering his question.

"My dad thought that we wasn't spending enough time with me so he sent them to our uncle Ian's house for the rest of the summer."

"Can you try calling them?" Mabel asked. Wendy then pulled out her cell phone, dialed her oldest sibling's number and was met with the fact that there was no Wi-Fi.

"Can't get a signal." She simply said as she slumped back in her seat.

"Well, we're here." Dipper said as he parked in front of the town hall, pulled the keys out of the ignition and got out, Mabel and Wendy following behind him. For a town in which the local government and all other services vanished, it was oddly peaceful, with kids sitting around and talking, with music in the background.

"Weird." Mabel simply stated.

"Yeah, you'd think there'd be a lot more, well, chaos." Dipper replied. It was at this point that a familiar Goth walked up to the trio with something to say.

"Hey babe." Robbie smugly said.

"What do you want?" Wendy replied with a derisive tone.

"I just thought that since our parents are gone, that we should shack up for the night." He said slimily and with a hint of desperation.

"No." she flatly said, feeling slightly humiliated for him, Dipper and Mabel and herself. "I'm staying with Dipper and Mabel, and I'm not gonna date you again."

"Pfft, really?" Robbie said before bursting into laughter. "You're gonna stay with that loser and sweater weirdo behind you instead of me?"

"Yeah, Robbie, I am. And I'm not gonna stay with you, and you're just gonna have to suck it up." She said confidently.

"You'll be sorry staying with the fucking incest twins." Robbie said before walking away grumbling to himself.

"Come on guys, let's go get some stuff." Wendy said before turning to see Dipper's hurt face. Immediately, she was concerned.

"Hey, what's wrong?" Wendy said.

"It's just that, back home, I just get made fun of a lot like 'You screw your sister last night' or 'What's with the birthmark, freak?' I thought coming here would be a new start, but, I guess its just turning into the same crap again."

"Listen. Dip, this isn't gonna be like that. What happened with Robbie was just a one-off thing. We'll just try to avoid him. He can only bother us for so long. You're not a loser, you're a champion."

And with that, Dipper felt confident enough to try and adapt to this change in society.

"Yeah. Come on guys, let's go to the store."

The trio resumed walking to the retail store to get a sleeping bag and new clothes for Wendy. While Mabel and Wendy were looking for clothes, Dipper went looking for sleeping bags. When he found one that would fit her, he took it off the rack only for another one to pop up in its place. Confused, he took this sleeping bag off the rack, only for yet another sleeping bag popping up in it's place. Almost on cue, Mabel and Wendy came up to him with similar experiences.

"Are you noticing the copies of stuff popping back up on the shelf?" he said.

"That's what we wanted to tell you about broseph! It's so weird!" The energetic sibling replied.

"Wait, so if everything in this store can just make copies of itself, does it mean every store in town can do that?" Wendy questioned.

"Well, let's just put this stuff back in the Shack and see for ourselves." Dipper said as they got the rest of the clothes she needed and went back to the Shack.


	3. Chapter 3

**Sorry for how long the hiatus between the last chapter and this chapter was. I simply hit a bout where I just didn't feel like updating despite me trying to tell myself that I should do it. Do you think this would count as writer's block, or just general apathy on my part? I don't know. I can't really explain in words what happened between this chapter and the last.**

**P.S. Pacifica's Magenta-haired lackey's name is Darius.**

After going back to the Mystery Shack to put away the clothes and sleeping bag, the trio drove back to town in order to see if their theory of self-copying items applied to all the goods in Gravity Falls. To their surprise, it was correct. If anything, they were the last people in town to find out about this, as the citizens were surprised to find that when looting stores, not only did the items come back, but also the shattered glass storefronts repaired themselves to pristine condition. While ambling about, they were interrupted by Wendy's friends: Lee, Nate, Thompson and Tambry pulling up to them on the street in.

"Hey Wendy, Dr. Fun Times, Dr. Fun Times' sister. What's goin' on?" Nate said.

"Nothin' much. Hey could you drive us to another town, we wanna see if it's just us or-" Dipper said before being interrupted by Lee.

"Weirdest thing. We tried to go, but it just took us back here. I think we're trapped."

"Well, Look at that. The problem solved itself." Dipper said exasperatedly.

"Aw, come on bro, at least it's safe here." Mabel said.

"I guess you're right. Wow, no offense you really need to shower." Dipper said.

"Why's that?"

"You smell like dirt." Dipper said.

"Why thank you kind sir. And, you look a little paler than usual." Mabel said shamelessly.

"Really? I'll check when we get back." Dipper said as the trio continued towards the town. While getting out of the golf cart, the trio noticed a kid on the corner screaming about a new ruler making her first speech. The trio went into the town square where it seemed that everyone in town was waiting. After a few minutes, a kid came out onto the podium and said into the microphone:

"Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome the new ruler of Gravity Falls, Pacifica Northwest!"

"Pacifica?!" The trio said surprisingly and angrily.

"Why Her?!" Mabel said.

"I don't know, let's find out." Dipper said reassuringly. After that, Pacifica finally spoke.

"Citizens of Gravity Falls. I would like to express my deep gratitude towards all of you for unanimously electing me to be your new leader. I hope to with full cooperation of everyone in town to resume life as normal as can be. I will be instituting various policies designed to better the lives of you and protect the stability to which I hold dear. With some help from my associate, who you may know as Robbie V., I will ensure a brighter tomorrow! Thank you people of Gravity Falls!" And with that, almost everyone stood up and gave her a standing ovation, with the noticeable exception of Dipper, Mabel, Wendy, Candy, Grenda, Lee, Nate, Tambry and Darius.


	4. Chapter 4

**Well, this is kind of a big chapter.**

As all of the citizens were walking out, Dipper, Mabel and Wendy were talking about the speech.

"Hey guys, I think I'm not sold with Pacifica being the leader." Dipper said.

"Yeah. It just seems a little weird that everyone was applauding her." Wendy stated.

"Let's kill her!" Mabel said.

"No Mabel." Dipper flatly replied. As they were going back to the golf cart, Grenda and Candy approached them.

"Hey guys!" Grenda said.

"Oh my god, this is the weirdest thing, am I right?" Mabel said.

"You said it, girlfriend!" Candy replied.

"You guys wanna come over tonight?" Mabel said.

"Oh. My. Gawd. We were just gonna ask you that!"

"Well, come on!" Mabel replied cheerily.

"Oh, yay." Dipper replied sarcastically.

"Come on, more the merrier." Wendy said. As she said that, Lee, Nate and Tambry came up to her.

"Hey, Wendy, can we crash at your place? Thompson kicked us out of the van." Nate said.

"Uhhhh, sure." She replied.

"Cool. We'll come when we've got everything." Lee said before they walked off.

"More the merrier?" Dipper said snidely.

"Heh, shut up." Wendy said. "Let's go back."

The five were hanging out in the living room until the doorbell rang. Wendy got up and opened the door.

"Hey Wendy, you move?" Tambry said.  
"I don't wanna talk about it. Come in guys." She led them to the living room. "Guys, this is Lee, Nate and Tambry."

"Hey, didn't we see you guys at that party here like a month ago?" Nate said.

"Eeehh. Probably?" Grenda said.

"We are like ghosts." Candy said.

"Hmh. Hey Wendy, got any beer? Pacifica's trying to ban it, and I will not get through this sober!" Lee said.

"With stuff just popping back, best of luck to her." Wendy said as she went to the fridge.

"Hey, is it me, or was I just weirdly unimpressed with her speech today?" Dipper said.

"Yeah, I mean, we didn't applaud at the end of it or anything, but everyone else did." Nate said.

"We just kind of sat there." Grenda said.

"Well, it's what we got. You don't like it, suck it up." Wendy said as she threw the bottle to Lee.

"Wendy, you are a goddamn lifesaver!" Lee said as he got the cap off.

The impromptu moving-in was interrupted by the doorbell ringing.

"I'll get it." Dipper said. As he opened the door, Darius stood there.

"Please help me." She said before rushing past Dipper and into the bathroom where she locked herself in the bathroom. After a few seconds, Dipper knocked on the door.

"Hey, you okay?" he said.

"Go away!" she replied.

"Aw come on, you wanna talk about it?"

"No! You wouldn't believe me if I did."

"If only you've seen what I've seen."

"Move over." Grenda said as she shoved Dipper out of the way. She was knocking, but as she knocked for the first time, it caused a hole in the bathroom door, an action that was met with screams from everyone present. Grenda looked in the hole.

"She's gone." She said.

"No I'm not." A voice that sounded like Darius' said. Dipper was so startled that as he screamed, a burst of electricity came out of his extended right hand. Scared, Wendy unintentionally put out any fire that could have arisen through the stream of water that came out of her hand. Nate jumped onto the wall in a flash, Lee teleported out of the room, Candy made the TV fly out of the window it was perched against, Tambry wound up making a copy of herself, while Mabel stood there in complete shock. When the chaos eventually died down, Darius became visible again. "I'm….right here."

After a moment of silence and a gaze at the trashed Mystery Shack, Dipper said: "Okay. Apparently we have powers. I don't know how. If you'll excuse me, I'm gonna go outside and scream and try to wrap my head around this. If anyone wants to join me, you're more than welcome." As soon as he left, Lee came back down the ladder from the secret spot on the roof.

"Hey guys, I didn't know you had a pati-" Lee stopped as he saw the damages done to the shack and the blank expressions of everyone there. "Hey Tam, why's there two of-"

"GAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

"There a reason he's screaming?"


	5. Chapter 5

"You know what, I should probably go talk to him." Mabel said as she walked out of the Shack. She found Dipper lying flat on his back looking up at the night sky. She squatted down beside him.

"I'm sorry Mabel, this is just kind of a lot to take in."

"I mean yeah. One minute you're livin' life and then the next you've got superpowers."

"Yeah, yeah it's also, does everyone have superpowers, or is it just us? How would Stan take this? How would Mom and Dad take this?"

"Aw come on. They'd still love you and you know it."

"Yeah, you're right. I'm just wondering if we're the only ones with powers."

"Come on, we'll see tomorrow."

Dipper and Mabel got up and walked back. It was at that point Mabel tripped and fell face first on the parking lot. When Dipper helped pick her up, her nose was crooked and blood was pouring out. Then to his astonishment, the blood suddenly stopped poring out and the nose fixed itself back to normal. Dipper and Mabel were stunned.

"Well I guess we all have powe-"

"I'm invincible!" Mabel screamed before standing in front of the golf cart. "Come on, run me over!"

"Mabel, I'm not gonna-"

"Come on, do it."

"If it'll make you happy, fine." He said resignedly as he got in the car. He took the key out of his pocket and turned the ignition on.

"Here goes nothing." As he sped, then ran over Mabel. She hit the front of the golf cart and when Dipper stopped in a panic, she rolled onto the ground. After two seconds, she bounced up without a scratch on her.

"You see, what I'd tell ya?" When she finished, Wendy came out the front door.

"Hey uh dude, did you try to run over your sister?" Wendy asked.

"I'll explain when we're inside." And with that, Dipper and Mabel walked back to the Shack.

* * *

The next morning was surprisingly peaceful. Well, about as peaceful as nine people with superpowers living together can be. Barring the occasional accidental misuse of powers, everyone ate and did their morning routine normally. Eventually, Dipper called a meeting in the gift shop.

"Okay guys. Last night was, uh."

"Weird?" Tambry said.

"Yeah, you could say that." Dipper replied. "But we've gotta try to not show our powers. Can you guys at least promise me that?"

"Why?" Grenda said.

"Well, we don't wanna be noticed and we don't wanna be killed. I'd like all of us to get through this alive, and I'm pretty sure you'd all want to too."

"Why us? How'd we even get these?" Candy questioned.

"Fate? Science? Prophecy? Wish I knew. Look, all that matters is that we don't go crazy and show off our powers. Come on, let's just go to town and get what we need."

"Doesn't everything just pop back?"

"Well, we could get what we want, then everything could just pop back here."

With a plan set, the nine walked out to find only the golf cart, and seeing how Stan's car was towed, it left the group with limited transportation.

"Well, nine of us, one of that." Dipper said.

"Yeah, okay, how the hell are we all gonna fit in that?" Nate said.

"Hey, Funtimes. I got an idea." Lee said.

"Okay, what is it?" Dipper said.

"Just drive me to Thompson's house, and I'll show you."

"Hey guys, Lee knows what to do. We'll be back." And with that, Dipper and Lee drove off in the golf cart to Thompson's house.

"All right, what'cha got?" Dipper said.

"Watch." Lee replied as he teleported inside Thompson's van and hotwired the van.

"Fuckin' go man." Lee said.

"Why?" Dipper replied.

"Oh god dammit Lee!" Thompson said as he ran outside, but he was too late as Dipper and Lee drove off with respectively the golf cart and the van. They pulled up into the Mystery Shack parking lot to applause and cheers from everyone else.

"Dude, he's probably gonna kill us." Dipper said.

"Yeah. Needs the exercise though." Lee replied.

"You know what, let's just go." And with that, the two vehicles drove into town.


End file.
